After Germany coach Joachim Löw gave his players a couple of days off after Friday's final pre-tournament friendly against Saudi Arabia (2-1) at the BayArena, the 'Mannschaft' met up at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt. Julian Brandt and Co. all set off from there. The team are due to land in Moscow in the early evening before heading off to the Germany HQ in Vatutinki some 40 kilometres south-west of the Russian capital. The Werkself defender Tin Jedvaj has been in Russia with the Croatia squad since Monday. Their first group match is on Saturday (16 June, 21.00 CET) against Nigeria.
Bayer 04 won the DFB Cup for the first time in the club's history 25 years ago today. The Werkself beat the Hertha Berlin Reserves 1-0 in front of 76,391 fans at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin thanks to a header from Ulf Kirsten. To celebrate the occasion, the club has organised an event this Tuesday evening (12 June) at the fitting time of 19.04 CET for fans and former players from the cup winning team at the 19 zero four Lounge in the West Stand at the BayArena. Former members of the squad from 1993 attending include players Rüdiger Vollborn, Andreas Thom, Christian Wörns, Markus Happe and Markus von Ahlen plus coach Dragoslav Stepanovic.
Thanks to his impressive performances last season, Leon Bailey was almost able to look forward to another award. In a survey held by the kicker sports magazine, where 70,000 readers voted for the 'Golden K', the Werkself number nine came third with 8.7% behind James Rodruigez (15.7 %) and Thomas Müller (9.2 %) of the German champions Bayern Munich.
The Bayer 04 players were put through their paces at the Werkstatt – the club’s rehabilitation and training centre – on Sunday as they completed the first and main part of this year’s performance diagnostics. New signings Mark Flekken, Ibrahim Maza and Axel Tape, as well as players returning from their holidays, all did the customary medical and athletic tests.
Show moreThe team departs for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Monday for the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour 2025 from July 14-24. The preseason journey marks a change from recent training camps in the Austrian Alps and Black Forest and we caught up with CEO Fernando Carro to ask him about this summer's visit to Brazil.
Show moreMalik Tillman and the USA could not quite achieve the hoped-for big win in their own country. Last Monday’s final in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Houston ended up in a 2-1 defeat for the hosts against Mexico. But the Bayer 04 new signing can be very happy with the course of the tournament and his own performances. Tillman was in the starting line-up for all six games. That concluded an impressive season for him after winning the Eredivisie title in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven. Bayer04.de profiles the 23-year-old new signing.
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen have signed the USA international Malik Tillman. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder joins the Werkself from Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven. Tillman, with German roots and born in Nuremberg, has a contract at Leverkusen to 30 June 2030. He scored 16 goals and provided five assists in 34 games for PSV last season. Three of those goals and two assists were in six matches in the UEFA Champions League.
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